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Last week, I called HSBC to see if a deposit of $10,000 would be accepted for my secured credit card. They said yes. I sent the check in, and today I see that they cashed it. However, my credit limit increased to $5,000. I called them up, and after an hour and a half of talking to incompetant CSRs, I was finally transferred to an HSBC/Capital One USA rep, who told me the absolute maximum on the account is $5,000. He said they are refunding the difference. Just a word of warning, do not try to deposit more than $5,000!
My question to you is why would you dump so much money like that into that card? I understand what you are trying to accomplish however I think you could use that money on other things. Now since they are give you back the 5K why not invest it
Why on earth did you deposit $10k (now $5k) into a secured card?
Could you use some of that money to clear up any negative info on your credit profile?
@Razeus wrote:Why on earth did you deposit $10k (now $5k) into a secured card?
Could you use some of that money to clear up any negative info on your credit profile?
Gnerally speaking, limits beget future limits, and as such additional deposits on a secured card are one of the ways to short-cut the limit raising game if you care about that at all. In my case there wasn't anything an additional 3K could help me with immediately, so I kicked my own BOFA card up to 5K not that long ago. In theory I get that all back come October though so it was simply a matter of short-term financing a useful tradeline myself.
@Revelate wrote:
@Razeus wrote:Why on earth did you deposit $10k (now $5k) into a secured card?
Could you use some of that money to clear up any negative info on your credit profile?
Gnerally speaking, limits beget future limits, and as such additional deposits on a secured card are one of the ways to short-cut the limit raising game if you care about that at all. In my case there wasn't anything an additional 3K could help me with immediately, so I kicked my own BOFA card up to 5K not that long ago. In theory I get that all back come October though so it was simply a matter of short-term financing a useful tradeline myself.
Right, the card will graduate with at least your secured deposit, and often the CL is raised once the deposit has been returned. Moreover, if you ever decided to increase the limit by sending in more money, it'll be another hard pull.
If feasible, many good reasons to start with a higher deposit.
@Open123 wrote:
@Revelate wrote:Generally speaking, limits beget future limits, and as such additional deposits on a secured card are one of the ways to short-cut the limit raising game if you care about that at all. In my case there wasn't anything an additional 3K could help me with immediately, so I kicked my own BOFA card up to 5K not that long ago. In theory I get that all back come October though so it was simply a matter of short-term financing a useful tradeline myself.
Right, the card will graduate with at least your secured deposit, and often the CL is raised once the deposit has been returned. Moreover, if you ever decided to increase the limit by sending in more money, it'll be another hard pull.
If feasible, many good reasons to start with a higher deposit.
To be fair, I don't think we're certain that BOFA will necessarily graduate me with my current CL, my former CL (2K) or some other number.
In the past I had a $2500 BOFA secured card, and it graduated as such; however, with this one I increased it at the 8th month mark. I'm front-loading a bunch of my spending through the end of the year all in this current month, and my balance will float past 4K in attempts to justify the tradeline. I haven't decided yet whether to try to max the card before whacking the balance or just calling it good with the high balance around 4.3k or thereabouts.
The drawback of having two jobs is I have little time; the benefit I suppose is I can try stupid tricks like this just to see what'll happen. Also the additional inquiry on TU for me is laughably trivial, pretty much everyone else is going to pull EX or EQ for me all the time other than BOFA CLI's unless my plans change, necessitating some change in course with some random GE-backed store card.
Edit: meh, I give up trying to fix the quoting
@Revelate wrote:
@Razeus wrote:Why on earth did you deposit $10k (now $5k) into a secured card?
Could you use some of that money to clear up any negative info on your credit profile?
Gnerally speaking, limits beget future limits, and as such additional deposits on a secured card are one of the ways to short-cut the limit raising game if you care about that at all. In my case there wasn't anything an additional 3K could help me with immediately, so I kicked my own BOFA card up to 5K not that long ago. In theory I get that all back come October though so it was simply a matter of short-term financing a useful tradeline myself.
+1
@howardroark wrote:Last week, I called HSBC to see if a deposit of $10,000 would be accepted for my secured credit card. They said yes. I sent the check in, and today I see that they cashed it. However, my credit limit increased to $5,000. I called them up, and after an hour and a half of talking to incompetant CSRs, I was finally transferred to an HSBC/Capital One USA rep, who told me the absolute maximum on the account is $5,000. He said they are refunding the difference. Just a word of warning, do not try to deposit more than $5,000!
old orchard allowed above 5k. Wish you had asked before apping. I would have recommended sdfcu secured card instead. Get some interest and no af. Can go to at least 100k.
Last year, the only secured cards I found were Orchard Bank and Cap One. Admittedly, I didn't do a ton of research, but I pretty much thought all of these cards were created equal.
I cannot wait until I can end my business with HSBC and Capital One. Really, I know why they both get so many complaints, their customer service is terrible. Unfortunately, this deposit limit may delay that.